At the circus

Yesterday we attended another Variety event. We had tickets to the Tripoli Shrine Circus, and Namine was very excited to go.

Namine has never had the dislike of clowns that I have, so nothing about the circus held any negative connotation for her. (My sister, on the other hand, does not merely dislike anything about clowns.) We were unfortunately a little late arriving, but even so, we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

We were seated in a handicap section, so Namine had a clear view without having to get out of her wheelchair. We arrived just in time to see the tiger trainer finish up his act. Up next were the acrobats, and while I took a few pictures, they of course do no justice to actually being there.

There were a couple different clowns, but Namine’s favorite was the first one we saw. He had an act with a dog dressed up like a small elephant, and haven’t heard her giggle and laugh like that in a long time. The other clown was a little more nonsensical, but even so, balancing a ladder on your nose is nothing to sneeze at.

During the intermission, they cleared out the arena to make way for children to ride on the elephants, camels, and ponies. Namine asked if she could ride an animal, but due to her caudal regression, unfortunately her legs and hips won’t allow her to straddle an animal’s back. So we had to tell her no.

We could see that Namine was disappointed, but we wanted to try to make it up to her. We asked her if, after the circus was over, she’d like to go to the mall and ride the train. She was still crestfallen, but she smiled a little. “Okay.”

If there was one part of the circus Namine didn’t like, it was the human cannonball at the very end. (As a matter of fact, she absolutely did not like it. She told me so.) The noise was loud, to be sure, but it wasn’t the noise that bothered her most. Plain and simple, she was afraid for the participant.

True to our word, we went to the mall afterward — the one mall that has a train for children to ride. Namine said she wanted to go by herself; we understood completely why she wanted to. She was still a little sad that she wasn’t able to ride an animal, but there’s nothing like a train ride to cheer you up.